In Conversation: RepresentAsian
Ahead of their Day Party alongside Booty Bass on 29 July, we spoke to Yusuf and Safiya Suave, co-founders of South Asian events and podcast collective RepresentAsian, about diversity in the events industry, transitioning from podcasting to events, and plans for the future.
RepresentAsian will be performing at Trinity on 29 July for a day party alongside Booty Bass as part of our in-house music programme Trinity Presents - click here to get your tickets.
How did RepresentAsian come about?
Yusuf: RepresentAsian is definitely Safiya’s brainchild. We were both home over Christmas and she wanted a “passion project”. At the time South Asians were essentially ignored outside of BBC Asian Network and Safiya felt a podcast would be a good platform to shine a light on those underrepresented. I was classically sceptical and dubious, but she talked me around so we bought the cheapest mics we could find and hit record.
Safiya: We were aware of South Asians doing bits across the UK music industry, but no one was talking about it. Daytimers were in their infancy at the time and an organisation called South Asian Audio Creatives released some research highlighting major radio stations had almost 0 South Asians on their presenting team. That was reason enough for us to try and do something about it.
How did you transition from podcasting to events?
S: So Yusuf can actually take credit for this one…
Y: By this point, South Asian DJs were being talked about and a few big names were appearing in Bristol. It’s a tough one, it was great to finally start seeing brown faces on stage, but the promoters of these events were your classic white men, perhaps looking to make some quick money off the back of a current trend. I was walking home after one of these events and sent Safiya a voicenote saying “we should be the ones booking brown DJs!”. On top of that, truly diverse dancefloors are hard to come by in Bristol and I wanted to try and create a space that encourages more POC’s to be seen and engage with the community. Often we don't feel seen so hopefully RepresentAsian is changing that for South Asians in Bristol.
What's it like working with your sibling?
Y: No comment. Joking, I would say 99% of the time it runs very smoothly?
S: We did have one big argument during a podcast recording…
Y: Oh yeah! But all was forgotten within a few hours. We know each other very well so when one of us gets annoyed, we know when to back off and let them settle. Plus, Safiya basically does all the work. I’m just the pretty face and I’m ok with that.
S: Hilarious. The face for radio, maybe.
What do you think can be done to make sure that people of South Asian heritage are better represented in events/music scene?
S: Good question – there’s a constant battle of representation vs quota box checking and pigeon holing. If you book a South Asian DJ are you expecting them to play bhangra or desi edits? We’re about to launch DJ workshops for South Asians in conjunction with the Asian Arts Agency. We hope by opening the doors to more people, we can encourage the next wave of budding talent to get involved and to make sure we’re not a flash in the pan.
Y: Whilst there has been a positive shift towards representation across the board. It comes in more forms than just DJs on a lineup. It would be great to see more South Asian (and POC in general) on the booking and programming teams at festivals and major events. More diversity at stakeholder level across music; be it management, booking agents, labels, promoters etc. We want to encourage people to pursue that career in music.
What can people expect from a RepresentAsian x Booty Bass day party?
Y: quite simply, it’s going to be a high energy, bangers – on – bangers - filled day. Expect music from across the world with bouncy basslines. We can’t wait!
What’s next for RepresentAsian?
S: We have our DJ workshops coming soon, more podcast episodes and more nights across Bristol and Amsterdam.
